How do I get a list of all declared classes inheriting from a particular class in C++

I know that isn't exactly possible in C++, but maybe a toolchain that can genera开发者_运维知识库te code which has a function, which when called gives me a list of all those classes. For example, across multiple files I have stuff like:

class MyClass : public ParticularClass {
    ....
}

class MyClass2 : public ParticularClass {
    ....
}

Then, during runtime, I just want a pointer to single instances of the class. Let's say my generated code looks something like this:

void __populate_classes() {
    superList.append(new MyClass());
    superList.append(new MyClass2());
}

Also, superList would be of type List<ParticularClass*>. Plus, I'll be using Qt and ParticularClass will be QObject derived, so I can fetch the name of the class anyways. I need to basically introspect the class, so my internal code doesn't really bother much about the newly defined type.

So, is there a way to generate this code with some toolchain? If it is possible with qmake alone, that'd be like icing on the freaking cake :)

Thanks a lot for your time.

Doxygen does a nice job at doing this -- offline. Various IDEs do a nice job at this -- offline. The compiler does not do this. Such knowledge is not needed or used by the compiler.

Here at work I use a tool called Understand 4 C++. It is a tool that helps you analyze your code. It will do this quite easily. But my favorite part is it comes with a C and Perl API which allows you to take advantage of the abstract syntax tree that 'understand' encapsulates and write your own static analysis tools. I have written tons of tools using this API.

Anyways, it's written by SciTools. http://scitools.com and I don't work for them. I just wholeheartedly like their product. In fact I wrote a C# API that wraps their C API and posted it on CodePlex a few years ago. Sure beats using C or Perl to write static analysis tools.

I don't think what you're trying to do is a good idea. Those who will maintain code after you will have hard times to understand it.

Maybe instead of it you'll try see how you can do it in plan C++. One possible solution which comes to mind i to implement factory design pattern. Than you can iterate over all data types in factory and add then to superList.

Any way, using ack (simple grep replacement) can do the job if you always declare the inheritence in one line:

ack ": *public ParticularClass" *.h